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Somewhere in the depths of my closet, I’ve buried a comfy gray T-shirt I haven’t worn in a long time. It hasn’t seemed appropriate to wear it in public in Brunswick County — not because it’s ill-fitting or ratty, emblazoned with profanity or promoting a potentially controversial issue, but because I’ve been so happy here at the helm of the Beacon newsroom.

Last week in the North Carolina House of Representatives, the speaker appointed the committee to negotiate the budget, we passed a bill to make amusement rides and zip lines safer, and we continued discussing the differences between the House and Senate budgets.

Editor’s note: The Beacon has tried for 16 weeks to reach Sen. Bill Rabon by phone and email for comment about Senate Bill 215, which lists him as the bill’s primary sponsor and calls for the state “to abolish the office of coroner in Brunswick County.” Senate Bill 215 was reported favorable to the Senate’s standing committee on health care and re-referred to the Senate Judiciary I Committee on March 31.

Because I am a golf writer, I get updates and scores from the Carolinas Golf Association every week. For those new to the area or new to the game of golf, the Carolinas Golf Association was founded in 1909 to promote and to protect the game of golf in the Carolinas by providing competitions, education, support and benefits to golfers.

It is the second largest golf association in the United States and has 700 member clubs in North and South Carolina. That’s huge, folks. At least 150,000 people are part of this organization.

It’s a miracle! That’s all there is to it. It’s just a miracle! Have you ever said, or heard, those words? Probably each of us has experienced or been witness to some sort of extraordinary happening that defied human explanation and caused us to ponder the presence of the Almighty in our lives. We see tornadoes touch down, destroy a whole town, but leave one house intact. It’s a miracle, we say.

In this column several weeks ago, I wrote about a woman who died from botulism toxin after attending a church potluck dinner. She had eaten potato salad made with improperly home-canned potatoes. Everyone seems to know about botulism in canned foods, but there are some other sources of this deadly toxin.

My progression into a card-carrying curmudgeon is coming along nicely. You can watch those inane situation comedies with their laugh tracks, reality shows featuring fake people with fake body parts and talent competitions (shouldn’t it just be “America Has Talent?”) when you pry the remote from my cold, dead fingers. No, give me a show about history, war, how something is made or figuring out if something is fact or widely believed fiction any day.

Deputies arrested Brian David Saltsgaver, of Liz Lane, and charged him with indecent liberties, nine counts of felony disseminating obscenities and four counts of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, according to a Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office news release issued Tuesday, July 28.

Since its 2011 debut in the rural reaches of Brunswick County, Greenlands Farm has cultivated a sense of community in addition to country commerce.

The latest seasonal, creative endeavor of the Bolivia-based farm and store is coming up the first day of August this Saturday as the Half Hell Folk Music Festival and “tap takeover” unfold from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the family-owned farm at 668 Midway Road.